Here are a few tips from MK that will help with your egg coloring extravaganza! Buy eggs ahead of time as it makes it easy peeling. The fresher an egg, the harder it is to peel once you have cooked it. A fresher eggs has a small air cell and the membranes between the shell and egg white are quite snug. As the egg ages, it takes in air through the shell’s and it loses carbon dioxide and water. This process makes the egg less acidic and increases the size of the air cell and helps separate the membranes from the shell, both of which make peeling easier. Boiling eggs makes eggs tough and rubbery. Eggs that are cooked too long or at too high a temperature also have unattractive green rings around the yolks. Use more gentle cooking to make tender eggs without green rings. Gentle cooking will also help to prevent cracking.
Follow a fewfood safetyrules! The most important is to decide of you plan on eating the eggs after they are dyed. If you won’t be eating the eggs, you can use any decorating materials you want and display the eggs anywhere for as long as you like. If you do want to eat the eggs, follow these rules:
- Wash your hands between all the steps of cooking, cooling, dyeing and decorating.
- Be sure that all the decorating materials you use are food safe.
- Keep the eggs refrigerated as much as possible by putting them back into the refrigerator whenever you’re not working with them.
- Dye the eggs in water warmer than the eggs so they don’t absorb the dye water.
- If hiding the decorated eggs, put them where they won’t come into contact with pets, other animals or birds or lawn chemicals.
- Eat uncracked, refrigerated hard-cooked eggs within a week of cooking them.
